Indian Life Newspaper -

Canada apologizes to Dene

"It is unbearable to consider what you lost in those years in Churchill," Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett stated. "All we can do now is offer our apologies." There was hardly a dry eye among the crowd as she spoke. These people knew what it was like. Their relatives had lived, and died because of it.

TADOULE LAKE, MB-The Canadian government formally apologized to the Sayisi Dene on Tuesday, August 16, when Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett issued an apology to the survivors of this northern Manitoba community.

"It is unbearable to consider what you lost in those years in Churchill," Bennett stated. "All we can do now is offer our apologies."

Along with the apology, Canada offered a $33.6-million compensation fund that will be invested as a trust, along with 13,000 acres of land in Little Duck Lake.